Guest: Mike McGowan Mike has been competitively climbing for 2 years, and has already received Gauteng Colours and has now been selected for the SA Team. This is his dream and he has worked so hard to get here.

Competition climbing has grown tremendously over the last few years and is now an official sport in the Olympic Games.

There are three disciplines, Speed, Lead and Boulder.

Mike climbs all three disciplines and has been selected for Speed.

Speed climbing is an extremely tough discipline that puts your body through enormous stress. The speed wall is 15meters high and needs to be climbed as fast as possible! The Youth record (last time I checked) is 5.8 seconds.

Mike started the Climbing team at Northcliff High at the beginning of last year and has grown the team from 3 members to 20! He is good, solid leader, reliable and a mentor to the younger team climbers. The experience and knowledge he will get from climbing in an International competition will greatly benefit NHS.

The IFSC – International Federation of Sport Climbing is the international body.

The SANCF – South African National Climbing Federation is our body.

Unfortunately, our country cannot sponsor these climbers so it is up to us to raise the funds.

We need to raise approximately R60K per athlete.